Kenya Situational Update as at 21.00 GMT Saturday 19th January 2008
The Kenya Tourist Board welcome today’s news that the level of travel advice from the British Government has been lowered so removing any real or perceived bar to travel to most of Kenya.
The Travel Advisory though continues to recommend that visitors don’t go to certain areas of the country so we suggest that you continue to constantly review both the recommendations of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Ireland and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advisories in the United Kingdom.
Today’s security update (below) gives more information about these regions. We continue to receive updates from the private sector in Kenya and these daily Situational Updates from the Kenya Tourist Board in association with the Kenya Tourism Federation will be issued for the foreseeable future.
o Today’s report from the Kenya Tourism Federation’s Operations Office (which is always on 24 hour watch) and their monitors around the country shows a calmer situation on Saturday. We shall continue to monitor the situation over this weekend. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advisories are being constantly updated. These sites should be referred to frequently.
www.foreignaffairs.gov.ie
www.fco.gov.uk
o The scheduled carriers - British Airways is still operating their daily schedules as normal from London Heathrow to Nairobi and from Nairobi International Airport to London Heathrow. There have been some revisions to both the Virgin Atlantic Airways timetable (with passengers on occasional flights moved to other dates of travel or carriers) and Kenya Airways which may not operate certain day time flights but will continue to operate their daily evening departures. For details please contact the appropriate carrier. KLM (flying via Amsterdam) advise that there may be certain route changes but its daily departures to Nairobi continue and Swiss services via Zurich and Brussels Airlines via Brussels also continue as normal.
o Some British operators have withdrawn from the weekly charter flown by Monarch Airlines and passengers are being placed on other carriers. The announcement states that the charter series will recommence in April
o All international passengers continue to transit normally through Nairobi International Airport to onward destinations and domestic flights by all carriers continue as normal with some cancellations due only to low loads.
Today in Kenya
Saturday 19th January 2008: Security Update: 4.00 p.m. local time
Following the announcement yesterday by the ODM opposition party that they had called off any further street protests, calm has returned to those areas in Kenya which had experienced demonstrations in the previous three days.
All the tourist resorts and the wildlife parks were unaffected and continued to operate as normal. The routes connecting the parks are also open and all is calm with traffic moving as normal. The route to the Mara which was affected by demonstrations at Narok in the last two days is open and calm and tourist vehicles have driven on this route today with no sign of any problem.
As a result of the ending of the street protests, the British government issued a revised Travel Advisory today, removing the blanket “non-essential travel” advice against visiting Kenya so British visitors coming to Kenya will have no problems with matters such as insurance.
Over the last two weeks the Kenya Tourism Federation has been consistently advising that the main tourist areas have not experienced problems affecting foreign visitors but that certain places should be considered off-limits for tourists at the present time such as the slums around Nairobi and the Kisumu-Kericho-Eldoret area of Western Kenya. The revised British government travel advice takes the same approach, warning against travel to specific areas of Kenya. These are Western Kenya including Kisumu, and parts of Rift Valley province including Kericho and Eldoret. At the coast the British Travel Advisory indicates that Mombasa town should be avoided.
We can confirm that the areas mentioned in Western Kenya are already being avoided by Kenyan tour operators. In Nairobi the airports and the main highways to the hotels are secure and open so that tourist vehicles are able to transfer between the airports and hotels without a problem and we are clarifying the British government advisory in this respect.
At the coast, the routes between the airports and the beach resorts are open and secure and have continued to have tourist traffic daily without any problem throughout the last two weeks. Mombasa town is on the island of Mombasa and is not a beach resort but mainly a commercial area with shops and offices. The beach resorts on the mainland north and south of Mombasa including Msambweni, Galu, Diani, Bamburi, Nyali, Shanzu, Kikambala, Kilifi and on to Watamu, Malindi and Lamu are all calm and the highways linking them are all open and secure. Tourists have been staying at the beach resorts throughout the last fortnight without any problems and all have travelled between the airports and their beach hotels without any incidents being reported.
Now that both the USA and the UK along with the Republic of Germany have Travel Advisories which allow travel to Kenya, with specific advice to avoid certain areas, we hope that the Travel Advice of other governments will be revised accordingly.
Tourists continue to experience a warm welcome from Kenyans as always and we are receiving very positive comments from the visitors in the country at the moment. It is important for the many thousands of Kenyans who are involved in earning a livelihood from tourism that we continue to receive visitors so that our tourism industry can keep playing an important role contributing to the national economy and creating benefits for the ordinary people of this country. Tourism is also vital if our wildlife parks are to continue conserving some of the world’s last great concentrations of wildlife and endangered species. Although tourism has continued to operate as usual over the last fortnight, we have experienced a big drop in tourist arrivals since the imposition of travel warnings and the subsequent temporary cessation of some of the charter flights into Mombasa. This has caused a decline in occupancies at all our tourist facilities, threatening the future of the tourism industry, but the removal of the non-essential travel warning by the British is a step in the right direction and will mean that tourist arrivals should now start returning to normal.
This is a great time to be on safari in Kenya or enjoying our Indian Ocean beaches!” Jake Grieves-Cook, Spokesman, Kenya Tourism Federation
The Kenya Tourist Board welcome today’s news that the level of travel advice from the British Government has been lowered so removing any real or perceived bar to travel to most of Kenya.
The Travel Advisory though continues to recommend that visitors don’t go to certain areas of the country so we suggest that you continue to constantly review both the recommendations of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Ireland and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advisories in the United Kingdom.
Today’s security update (below) gives more information about these regions. We continue to receive updates from the private sector in Kenya and these daily Situational Updates from the Kenya Tourist Board in association with the Kenya Tourism Federation will be issued for the foreseeable future.
o Today’s report from the Kenya Tourism Federation’s Operations Office (which is always on 24 hour watch) and their monitors around the country shows a calmer situation on Saturday. We shall continue to monitor the situation over this weekend. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advisories are being constantly updated. These sites should be referred to frequently.
www.foreignaffairs.gov.ie
www.fco.gov.uk
o The scheduled carriers - British Airways is still operating their daily schedules as normal from London Heathrow to Nairobi and from Nairobi International Airport to London Heathrow. There have been some revisions to both the Virgin Atlantic Airways timetable (with passengers on occasional flights moved to other dates of travel or carriers) and Kenya Airways which may not operate certain day time flights but will continue to operate their daily evening departures. For details please contact the appropriate carrier. KLM (flying via Amsterdam) advise that there may be certain route changes but its daily departures to Nairobi continue and Swiss services via Zurich and Brussels Airlines via Brussels also continue as normal.
o Some British operators have withdrawn from the weekly charter flown by Monarch Airlines and passengers are being placed on other carriers. The announcement states that the charter series will recommence in April
o All international passengers continue to transit normally through Nairobi International Airport to onward destinations and domestic flights by all carriers continue as normal with some cancellations due only to low loads.
Today in Kenya
Saturday 19th January 2008: Security Update: 4.00 p.m. local time
Following the announcement yesterday by the ODM opposition party that they had called off any further street protests, calm has returned to those areas in Kenya which had experienced demonstrations in the previous three days.
All the tourist resorts and the wildlife parks were unaffected and continued to operate as normal. The routes connecting the parks are also open and all is calm with traffic moving as normal. The route to the Mara which was affected by demonstrations at Narok in the last two days is open and calm and tourist vehicles have driven on this route today with no sign of any problem.
As a result of the ending of the street protests, the British government issued a revised Travel Advisory today, removing the blanket “non-essential travel” advice against visiting Kenya so British visitors coming to Kenya will have no problems with matters such as insurance.
Over the last two weeks the Kenya Tourism Federation has been consistently advising that the main tourist areas have not experienced problems affecting foreign visitors but that certain places should be considered off-limits for tourists at the present time such as the slums around Nairobi and the Kisumu-Kericho-Eldoret area of Western Kenya. The revised British government travel advice takes the same approach, warning against travel to specific areas of Kenya. These are Western Kenya including Kisumu, and parts of Rift Valley province including Kericho and Eldoret. At the coast the British Travel Advisory indicates that Mombasa town should be avoided.
We can confirm that the areas mentioned in Western Kenya are already being avoided by Kenyan tour operators. In Nairobi the airports and the main highways to the hotels are secure and open so that tourist vehicles are able to transfer between the airports and hotels without a problem and we are clarifying the British government advisory in this respect.
At the coast, the routes between the airports and the beach resorts are open and secure and have continued to have tourist traffic daily without any problem throughout the last two weeks. Mombasa town is on the island of Mombasa and is not a beach resort but mainly a commercial area with shops and offices. The beach resorts on the mainland north and south of Mombasa including Msambweni, Galu, Diani, Bamburi, Nyali, Shanzu, Kikambala, Kilifi and on to Watamu, Malindi and Lamu are all calm and the highways linking them are all open and secure. Tourists have been staying at the beach resorts throughout the last fortnight without any problems and all have travelled between the airports and their beach hotels without any incidents being reported.
Now that both the USA and the UK along with the Republic of Germany have Travel Advisories which allow travel to Kenya, with specific advice to avoid certain areas, we hope that the Travel Advice of other governments will be revised accordingly.
Tourists continue to experience a warm welcome from Kenyans as always and we are receiving very positive comments from the visitors in the country at the moment. It is important for the many thousands of Kenyans who are involved in earning a livelihood from tourism that we continue to receive visitors so that our tourism industry can keep playing an important role contributing to the national economy and creating benefits for the ordinary people of this country. Tourism is also vital if our wildlife parks are to continue conserving some of the world’s last great concentrations of wildlife and endangered species. Although tourism has continued to operate as usual over the last fortnight, we have experienced a big drop in tourist arrivals since the imposition of travel warnings and the subsequent temporary cessation of some of the charter flights into Mombasa. This has caused a decline in occupancies at all our tourist facilities, threatening the future of the tourism industry, but the removal of the non-essential travel warning by the British is a step in the right direction and will mean that tourist arrivals should now start returning to normal.
This is a great time to be on safari in Kenya or enjoying our Indian Ocean beaches!” Jake Grieves-Cook, Spokesman, Kenya Tourism Federation
posted by Odyssey at
1:30 AM
1 Comments:
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On resumption of talks led by Kofi Anan, President Mwai Kibaki ruled out the possibility of accepting any deal that cannot be accommodated in the current constitution. The opposition have been pushing for the amendment of the country’s constitution to create the position of an executive prime minister to be in charge of government while the president retains the head of state status. The prime minister’s position would be taken by Hon Raila Odinga.
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